Stoops has the bomb!The Buckeyes have agreed to a home-and-home series with Oklahoma starting with a September 17, 2016 visit to Norman. The Sooners will visit Columbus on September 16, 2017 to complete the series.
Besides the fact that I'll be 58 and 59 when those games are played, it's pretty awesome news for schedule defenders that worked overtime in 2007. No doubt exciting for all of you that have been waiting to catch a game at a stadium with "Gaylord" in its name as well.
Both institutions run premiere programs, so there's little chance we'll get a Washington surprise when the games finally arrive. Assuming both current coaches make it to the matchups, which is no given considering Stoops could be anywhere by then and Tress may presently be in the middle of his Buckeye career, it's a nice pairing of the two coaches that have had the worst luck in BCS games during the middle of this decade.
The teams have only met twice before, with the Sooners winning in the Shoe in 1977 and the Buckeyes getting one back in Norman in 1983. Both exciting games and lucky for you, Buckeye Commentary has the A/V.
Great news to be sure, but I'd love to see the school focus efforts on scheduling home-and-homes with SEC schools.
Comments
not sure any SEC schools would agree to that. their incredible speed is sapped any time they venture north of the Mason-Dixon line in the harsh cold of... September.
anyway, they're chicken.
scheduling the SEC schools would be nice, but it is a rare event. There was the kickoff classic in 1985 or 86 with Alabama, the home-and-home with LSU in 87-88 and a few meetings between perennial SEC giants Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Other than that, we usually see them in Tampa or Orlando or thereabouts.
Of course, buckeyecommentary readers say that if we've scheduled USC, Texas, OU and the like, we have to have then made overtures to the top SEC schools only to be turned down. is there any way we can really know this, though? In fairness to the SEC, though, Auburn had scheduled USC for a home-and-home, and has WVU forthcoming. Georgia has Arizona State, Okie State and Colorado. Alabama has Penn State in a few years. Not that impressive, but far from all the SEC schools as demonstrably cowardly. Maybe we're just getting caught up over Florida who won't leave the state unless they're forced to.
Of course, maybe the SEC schools saw the thrashing USC gave to Auburn in the return leg in 2003 and thought to themselves "uhhh... no thanks".
My Gawd. I'll be 45 and 46 years old. That's scary.
At least the Athletics Department is making an effort to schedule a top-flight opponent every year. Now, if we can ditch the I-AA teams, we'll be all right.
You know what's going to happen, though. Stoops will lose two or three more BCS games in a row, he'll be fired, the Sooners will bring in some moron who can't run that program, and Oklahoma will tank, just in time for us to play them. We go undefeated, but everyone looks at our schedule and says, "Well, who did you play? Oklahoma sucks."
I wonder if folks really understand how far in advance these match-ups are scheduled?
Honestly, I think there is bad blood between the Big10 and SEC. Delany makes comments about their academics. Let's face it Big10 institutions are far superior academically and financially then almost all of the SEC schools. They do that whole over recruiting thing that Big10 teams are not allowed to do. IU plays Kentucky every now and then, but when do you see Big10-SEC matchups at all? The fact OSU has only played SEC schools ~15 times in their history (most of those are recent bowl matchups), that says something. It may even go all the way back to when SEC schools refused to integrate and wouldn't play schools with African American players.
They should schedule them 2 years in advance, which is PLENTY of time.
And Vico, Florida hasn’t left home on 16 years for a non-conference game.....but Georgia has traveled the fewest miles of any team in the country for its away games (according to the wizard of odds). And the bottom for teams in that category were all SEC teams with either 7 or 8 of the bottom 10 being from the SEC....so no, we're not just getting hung up on Florida, the majority of them are like that.
Wil, very true, I think we get caught up over Florida as the biggest offender, since their last out-of-state non-conf game was Syracuse in 1991. Still, the other SEC schools at least seem to schedule some quasi-almost-legit non-conference games, but it's usually the ACC with its killer BCS bowl record, and not north of the Mason-Dixon line at all. In fact, it seems like everyone is playing Clemson within the forseeable future (Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss, Vandy, and South Carolina who they always play). The Vols have NC State and UNC upcoming (and Oregon, UCLA, OU and Nebraska, to be fair). Maybe the SEC schools are aviatophobic or something.
I think it’s more of an ego thing. They think that they are that much better than us that they shouldn’t have to travel up here.
Or maybe they think they have a very tough regular season,and don't need to risk a tough non-conference game. Honeslty, I don't blame them. Why the hell shoudl they take a non-conference challenge? They play in the toughest conference. Would you honestly blame an ACC Basketball team for not going out of its way to play a tough non-conference schedule?
We have a word for teams that need to play tough non-conference games. "Mid Majors".
Jason,
Don't hold your breath about any SEC team playing a one and one with ANY major confrence team. They are the only confrence with the get out of jail free card when it comes to discussions about strenght of out of confrence schedules. I mean could imagine having to a play a game out of your own backyard? That must be awful!!!!
Dan, I understand the SEC is probably the best conference right now. And probably for the past few years as well. But it hasn't always been & will it be next year or any following year? Most SEC schools historically don't travel far for their non-conference games. So is it okay that they continue to do that? How will they measure themselves against others if they close it down & just play southern schools? With this logic, they can boast that the SEC is the best conference from now until the end of time.
"How will they measure themselves against others if they close it down & just play southern schools? With this logic, they can boast that the SEC is the best conference from now until the end of time."
They measure themselves by winning their bowl games - situations in which they do have to travel and play someone outside their region. More often than not, they're winning those games - particularly the most important ones. Sucks, but it seems to work for them.
I completely agree with Mark.
Dan, part of the Problem is that the majority of the high profile bowls are played down south......so these SEC teams can play weak non-conference schedules, make it to 1 of the major bowls in the south, play a virtual home game, win, and then claim that all the teams in the SEC are good teams without having to win any tough away games.
Is LSU winning 3 National Championships based on bowl games that were played in the Louisiana really fair? You know SEC fans would be complaining if USC won 3 national championships based on wins in the Rose Bowl and had no serious out of conference road games. (However, USC plays anyone who will play them out of conference). That would also be similar to Miami playing a weak out of conference schedule and winning national championships in the Orange Bowl. (But again, Miami has traditionally played tough out of conference schedules).
Why is it that SEC teams, for the most part, are given this free pass when other teams and conferences would get destroyed publicly if their schedules looked like this year after year?
Joe Fox......see my post above this.
If you were a good player wouldn't you want to travel outside of the dirty south? I guess you'd play in a lot of crazy SEC environments, but I'm sure the last few years OSU recruiters sell seeing new cool places like Seattle and LA. I mean you could get a Rose or Fiesta Bowl bid, but most likely the bowl game is down there as well.
Tennessee is a little different than most of the SEC schools (KY and Vandy the exceptions) because they don't have the in-state high school football talent that comes from Fla, GA, MS and ALA. They need to do a little more national recruiting to be successful.
This University of Georgia president Michael Adams wants a fight, last year he didn't want a playoff now this year he thinks his team got screwed so he's threatening to ban the Rose Bowl from his proposed BCS playoff system to put the heat on Delaney. I think if we agree to any playoff system it should be regional with important games played in northern venues as a way to force SEC teams up north. If they want to ruin our holidays bowls in sunny warm places with our kids relaxing at the beaches... then we'll screw them out of their home turf advantages and spend our money up here instead.
http://dispatch.com/live/conte...
I'll take Georgia's complaints about fairness seriously when they cross the Mason-Dixon line. In November.